The present invention relates to portable spreaders of the drop kind which are supportable on a pair of wheels and which are manually pushed by the user thereof.
A somewhat related spreader is disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,017, issued Feb. 22, 1993 and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In my aforementioned patent there is shown an articulated spreader of the broadcast kind having pre-assembled parts, including upper and lower frames having divergent leg members that can be assembled for use by the operator without the need of tools and can be collapsed as well into a generally prismatic-shaped package containing all the parts of the spreader. The broadcast spreader in my aforementioned patent uses a manual pull cable for controlling the rate of flow of material from the spreader hopper, an accordion-like shut-off plate for opening and shutting the material exit escape at the bottom of the hopper, and a gear box housing disposed below the broadcast rotor plate.
Another related spreader is disclosed in my co-pending application, directed to a broadcast spreader, Ser. No. 08/357,917, filed Dec. 16, 1994, and assigned to the same assignee as the present application, which application claims improvements on my aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,017.
At present there is a need for a manually propelled drop spreader that is efficient in design, reliable in operation, and which makes economic use of its moving parts. There is also a need for improving the collapsibility feature of the spreaders above discussed, particularly the collapsibility of the rest or support member, as well as improving features specific to the operation of a drop spreader, such as the construction of the shut-off bar and the agitator bar as well as how these two members are operatively combined.